Art Trap Productions

Resurrection of the Daleks

I've decided to watch the old copy as with the FIVE DOCTORS because there seem to be one or more different versions including a version that here, in the US, went uncut and had different cliffhanger endings. Parts of this version seem to have no sound effects or music but part one does.

In any event, I lost count of how many deaths were in this ep but I'd say at least 18 people or more die before the end of ep1. It would have been more mysterious if we didn't have the name DALEK in the title but that probably got more viewers and also if Davros wasn't seen behind the officer before a close up but whatever: this still is quite shocking and scary and gross at times. The Daleks release some kind of virus gas that makes people's faces go all rice crispy, mutanty, and bloody, green, black, and red; one face looks like it's turned into raw flesh or an alien with smooth features. The Daleks are dangerous here. Their human helpers even more so. At first, I didn't understand what was going on. There seemed to be policemen on Earth at abandoned buildings (great location by the way, abandoned buildings seemed in vogue in the 60s, 70s, and 80s and there were a great deal of them, not to mention lots, forests, etc). These are REAL LIFE abandoned buildings, that I believe have since been knocked down and replaced and the area has become a busy area again, I think I read.

There were also soldiers who didn't seem to be from UNIT. A time corridor connecting the Dalek time to the present time. And people who are trying to escape from both. I didn't trust the soldiers. I blinked and missed how Turlough got through the time corridor to the future. Even Rula Lenska seems okay in this and this episode is far from boring. Lytton, despite heading the killing of at least 9 escapees, seemed to want to stun them instead and said as much but mostly because they were experimental. Lytton even takes his helmet off after the gas in the spaceship has killed several people. That said, he seems to be in a few places at once or at very least, seems to be heading several operations at once: at the warehouse in the present and rescuing Davros, who looks great in this ep anyway, in the future. To me, Lytton is just a cold blooded killer through and through.

And once again, Tegan and Turlough give each other knowing and fed up glances as the Doctor leaves the TARDIS to find out what's going on. It really is amazing how he walks into these things without any protection or weapons, once a selling point is now...just looking foolish. What I mean is that once I could respect a character who didn't carry weapons but seeing as how he usually gets his friends and even othes in trouble, maybe he should have carried weapons. He also lies shamelessly when he tells the soldiers (whom he was warned about before he entered the warehouse) that Turlough wandered in by mistake. He didn't. He was just following the Doctor in.

This ep is entertaining but to be honest, the Blake's 7 factor (alot of death and destruction and wanton cruelty) has taken over DW to the full. It's a bit upsetting and unsettling but I guess that's what DW has to do at times and it did so greatly here, unlike future stories such as ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN and THE TWO DOCTORS.

Just a note to let you know that when this story was first broadcast in the UK it was aired as a 2-part story. It was designed to be a four-parter but due to the Winter olympics they 'doubled up' and made two double-length episodes. Unfortunately the re-editinig did not give the consistent lengths.

Because of the double-length format the team decided to try the format the following year. That was Colin Baker's first full season.

When the story was released in the US it was returned to the four-part format. ...And lets not forget there was also the movie-style version that was out as well - the one with all the parts edited together for one whole show.

For the novelisation fans - This is one of the few stories that was not done as 'official' release in book form but an un-official version exist. It's an e-book and can be found here:

Okay I needed a synopsis to figure out what set is what setting. I guess I found out the warehouse is the warehouse and the soldiers had a scienitific advisor, thus they knew about alien involvement. I thought I heard one of them say that there were alien artifacts found or possibly alien bombs so they came looking. There's also the prison station which is in space that housed Davros. There's also the Dalek spaceship, which is pretty big and seems almost like a space station itself.

Davros, freed, takes over his mechanic. The Black Dalek is not fond of Davros and lets him roam about. The Daleks let Turlough roam about. Tegan's hurt in the scuffle with the Dalek, which gets tossed out a window by the Doc. Who later shoots the rampaging mutant within. Why didn't he make sure the mutant was dead too? It might have saved one man (or was it two different men?) from being attacked. My part two has no music save the theme song, nor any sound effects so when people point laser guns and aim, other actors fall about yelling with no visible sound effect for a laser or ray or sound of a gun firing. Similarly, we can hear the Daleks rolling about. And when the first Dalek and in this cliffhanger, a bunch of Daleks yell "exterminate" we hear their yell well into the cliffhanger sting and the DW theme music coming in.

As for the story, yeah, it is a bit convoluted but not terrible and it does evoke considerable tension. This episode also finds a coughing Turlough making his way past victims of the gas, quite terrible and horrible in a horror sort of way and tense sequences. I guess he might be immune as an alien or maybe the gas has worn off its intensity.

Lytton proves he's just a horrible murdering creep by using the gas as part of his plan. He also shoots several more people or has them shot.

The Daleks or rather Lyttons' two policemen on Earth start replacing soldiers on Earth and they hold Tegan and another soldier, a female, hostage in the building.

All in all, not a bad episode, but one that is perhaps too intense! All things said, it's a good one and a good Dalek story too. This new Davros comes off well, too. Did Davros always have his left arm hidden?

It also amazes me that the Doctor just marches off into incredible danger, when knowing there will be danger and death awaiting him...with no plan and no weapons...it used to seem admirable but not it seems kind of stupid. I guess I've said that already but this story seems to bring that aspect of the Doctor out and maybe that is why he sports a gun against the mutant and later against Davros himself. Maybe he even realizes that not to use a weapon against such callous murderers is silly...or maybe he coudn't figure out another way to deal with such disgusting vile terrorists.

I must say that I am enjoying this. At the time, yes, it was confusing but today, it just seems like a lot going on and almost all of it is good. I even like the sub plot about the doctor trying to find a way to crack the self destruct on the space station. And yes, there is a lot of violence but judging by today's CSI, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, Medium and others, this violence is tame as we don't really see severe gun wounds or mangled bodies. It's all a sort of game of war that children might play with toy guns and stuff. BUT if you use your imagination, sometimes that's worse and back then it seemed shocking.

Tegan's venture here is very well done. Her efforts to escape are stopped at almost every level and that's scary. It might have even more scary if I knew, as I did Adric's, that this was her last story and she might actually die. The poor lady that was with her. And the man looking for metal in the Thames (Is the Thames?). It all looks rather good on location and the two policemen Dalek agents (are they clones as well?) don't run but walk after Tegan...which makes for a change and also makes them much more scary. And that they kill an innocent bystander for no reason. No wonder Tegan wants to leave the TARDIS after this, wouldn't you?

The Doctor's interrogation by mind probe is effective as well as we go through all his past selves and most of his companions (no Kamelion, thank goodness as he doesn't count but no Leela, Mike Yates or Benton either). It's this year's flashback and it is rather stirring to be honest and a bit sad. Davison has some Davisonisms here too ("I must have played truant that day" and "Why do they take themselves so seriously?"). Honestly, the villains in the Tom years might have had the same said of them, "Why do they take themselves so seriously," when Tom's Doctor didn't.

The sub plot about invading Gallifrey and the clones of Tegan and Turlough just add to the layers of this and don't confound at all. In fact, it makes sense for the Daleks to try to invade Gallifrey.

The cliffhanger here ends with Davros screaming his head off in true Davros fashion and with all the death around him, and deceit, it is quite alarming.

Lytton, by the way, is he a clone or duplicate too? He just might be. He is, in my mind, still a ruthless, disgusting murdering traitor to humanity. At the time this aired, I really wanted him to die! That's awful isn't it! All in all this story is rather good, better than I remembered.

It's odd how some days work out. This episode and the climax of the story is totally unpredictable. I mean we can work out Davros will suffer and there will be sacrifices but who will be sacrificed? I thought for sure that creep Lytton and his two policemen would die but in true 1980s horror fashion the evil lives on. They get away with their crimes. I don't even know if the two policemen who return in ATTACK, if they do return, I can't recall, are the same two. Lytton does return but is it the same Lytton?

I felt, watching this now, that it was very unpredictable and even though Turlough stays at the end of this one, it felt like an era was ending as Tegan does leave and what a leaving scene. No one left before because they were sick of the Doctor's life style. In true Tegan fashion, Donna in the new show felt she couldn't do what athe Doctor did on a daily basis in what is one of the only good things about RUNAWAY BRIDE (the other being the scene on the roof and the other being the motorway chase scene). Here, the music, the GREAT acting underplayed by Fielding and Davison, add to the entire thing of unpredictability. The Doctor and Turlough have to warn Earth authorities. The whole Tegan thing though, her leaving, sad, running so that she won't change her mind, then returning a moment after the TARDIS is gone and saying what she did...totally great. Perhaps the best leaving scene ever rivaling Sarah's leaving scene.

One short part made me laugh. Stien gets into the self destruct room and puts his hands on his hips as if he's WONDER WOMAN. WTF? Other than that, there's little here to criticize but I'm sure ABOUT TIME 5 does find some faults and flaws, there always are. There's a lot of action, alot of death and the copy I watched had many people just fall and yell and scream and die agonizingly. It was very unsettling and made one feel...crappy about the violence but tha'ts how violence is supposed to be played...it should make us feel bad and it shows the repercussions of violence...as Tegan leaves. Movies nowadays glorify violence, revenge, and bloodshed as if it's perfectly all right and moral.

That said: perhaps the Doctor, who has filings in his mouth, and who thinks nothing of shooting a Dalek mutant and blasting Daleks with bombs (rightfully so) reneges in shooting Davros. He shouldn't have. I might not have said that pre -9-11 but ....the other thing is that for every time the Doctor lets the Master and Davros live...others will die in the future thanks to them. The Doctor even calls himself an imbecile.

Okay, good story. Scary and uneven and a bit convoluted but action filled and unpredictable.

With FRONTIOS and THE AWAKENING done months ago, it's time for the last Davison story CAVES OF ANDROZANI. I can feel for Davison now when he claims he felt he should have stayed one more year. His Doctor has just come into his own and seems ready to actually be the Doctor and be Doctor-like and take charge...and then he's gone.